Wahanda acquires French beauty booking site ZenSoon

London-based Wahanda has completed the acquisition of the French online beauty booking website, ZenSoon.

Acquiring ZenSoon is the latest move in Wahanda’s ambitious European expansion plans and follows last week’s announcement that Wahanda has acquired its Dutch equivalent, Treatwell.

Wahanda, which is Europe’s largest hair and beauty marketplace, has also raised a further €65m from its Japanese owners, Recruit, to invest in the development of France, Spain, Italy and Benelux.

This is in addition to the €42m raised in May, that has been assigned to grow the UK and German markets.

Lopo Champalimaud, founder and CEO of Wahanda said: “France is a vitally important strategic market for us as we continue to drive forward our plans to build a world-class platform and transform the way people book their hair and beauty appointments globally.

“The hair and beauty market in France alone is worth €11bn, with over 100,000 spas and salons. With limited funding, ZenSoon, through their truly entrepreneurial spirit, have achieved incredible growth and positioned themselves as a major player in the French market.”

With the acquisition of ZenSoon, Wahanda iss eto to operate 1,000 spas and salons in France and 20,000 venues across Europe. ZenSoon is already growing at 30% month-on-month.

Mallorie Sia, co-founder and MD of ZenSoon, added: “We are delighted to be joining forces with Wahanda, a company that in a short period of time has grown into the largest player of its kind in Europe,” said Mallorie Sia, co-founder and MD of ZenSoon. “We share in the team’s vision of the hair and beauty market and the huge potential to disrupt the industry for the better.

Marie Sermadiras, co-founder of ZenSoon, also commented: “Wahanda not only has a fantastic team with a real sense of purpose, but it also has the most advanced technical tools and financial means to deliver that vision, and we are excited to be playing our part in that,” adds Marie Sermadiras, co-founder of ZenSoon.”

Wahanda acquired Germany’s Salonmeister in October 2014; completed the acqui-hire of the Lemon Labs team, the Lithuanian mobile app development agency, in January this year; and acquired the team and assets of Austria’s Beautycheck in April.